First hand experience of homeopathic remedies ?

Gordanus said:
There is a strong psychological componant to eczema which would be a reason why it responded to suggestion - and/or magnets.
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Suggestion perhaps. Magnets - how!!?!
 
Betsy Og said:
but all other viewpoints are not necessarily "for the birds".
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I never said that but when it comes to homeopathic treatments per se I would agree.
Take mental health for instance, some qualfied medics say drugs are not any part of the answer, its all to do with therapy/counselling and life skills, learning to deal with lifes traumas.

Not being an evangelist for either camp I'm inclined to think there is a middle ground in that the very ill need medication, but medicating everyone and leaving it at that is no solution either.
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This is a different kettle of fish. For a start drug treatments for psychological problems contain active ingredients which cause observable effects on the body chemistry (e.g. they stimulate or suppress the release or reuptake of specific neurotransmitters). The fact that the link between levels of certain neurotransmitters and certain psychological illnesses is not fully understood is another issue altogether. At the very least drug treatments for psychological illnesses do contain active ingredients and do have observable effects on the body. In the case of homeopathic preparations there are no active ingredients so, as Brendan points out, there can be no effects (good, bad or indifferent) attributable to the homeopathic preparations themselves. There may be placebo effects due to other factors, including simply the homeopathic practitioner spending time talking to and sympathising/empathising with the subject, but homeopathic preparations themselves do nothing and to charge people high prices for distilled water or inert sugar XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX based on the promise of them treating any ailment is a rip-off, pure and simple (like the preparations themselves).
 
I think you're being a little unfair on the OP.

Whilst the effectiveness of classical homeopathy - aka sugar XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX with a little alcohol hasn't been proved, there are other forms which border on herbology which do.

How many people have used Arnica cream to help bruises reduce or hypericum(small flower) reduce swelling or angry redness? Both of which are also used in homeopathy treatment, but are proven to be highly effective. Caveat Emptor though Tarfhead and I wouldn't recommend that you shun proven, conventional therapies for homeopathy, particularly when it can be to the detriment of your health.
 
The original poster was quick to point out the precise nature of their query when I originally posted. The query was specifically in relation to homeopathic remedies. Herbal and other complementary remedies are another issue altogether and some may well have active ingredients, observable effects and positive treatment potential. But that's not what the thread is about.
 
Actually Clubman, both of the elements I mentioned - Arnica & Hypericum are recognised as homeopathic treatments as well.
I was simply pointing out that classic homeopathic "treatments" have been disproved as being effective BUT other homeopathic "treatments" can be effective.
 
mo3art said:
Actually Clubman, both of the elements I mentioned - Arnica & Hypericum are recognised as homeopathic treatments as well. I was simply pointing out that classic homeopathic "treatments" have been disproved as being effective BUT other homeopathic "treatments" can be effective.
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That's another problem with quack and/or complementary treatments - who is the final arbiter of what's official and what's not? At least if there was a reliable official definition of what's homeopathic and what's not then you could dismiss all of the former without a second thought. Regardless of how they are described/marketed, herbal treatments with active ingredients would not fit the classical definition of homeopathic remedies as far as I understand it ("law of similars" and "theory of infinitesimals" and all that rubbish). Are you sure that Arnica and Hypericum (St. John's Wort) are necessarily described or marketed as homeopathic remedies? Aren't they simply herbs which may be included in a variety of preparations some of which may be (mistakenly?) sold as homeopathic remedies?
 
I agree completely ClubMan, it's very hard to distinguish between the 2.

Yes, I am positive that they can come under either homeopathic & herbal. It's terribly confusing, but important that people recognise that these remedies can make a measureable difference in certain conditions under certain circumstances.

Down to each individual whether they choose to partake of a homeopathic remedy or not but to be honest if I felt it was giving me an improvement for whatever reason (pyschological or not) I would continue to take it. Does that make sense?
 
Hi Mozart

I think you are confusing homeopathy with complementary medicine generally or with herbalism. The only definitions I have heard of homeopathy is that it its the treatment of illnesses with minute quantities of the illness itself. And the more diluted they are, the more effective they are.

The general movement likes to mix up homeopathy with acupuncture and astrology and crystals and herbalism.

I don't think anyone would deny that herbs can have a dramatic good or bad effect on a person's health.

Brendan
 
I think it's actually fairly simple to distinguish between 'Homeopathic' and 'Herbal' remedies.

Homepathic ones are those where there are no measurable active ingredients.
Herbal ones do have a measurable amount of active ingredient present. Therefore it is possible for the same element to be formulated and sold as either a homeopathic or a herbal remedy, depending on how it is produced.

I have thought of producing and marketing a range of homeopathic remedies myself, as it seems a really fast way to make loads of money with very little outlay. I wouldn't be allowed to make any claims of cures etc., therefore my cynicism about the (non) efficacy of these products couldn't cause any problems.

Let those who believe in homeopathy use these products, they can't cause any physical harm as there's nothing to them. As for the psychological impact, on balance it probably does more good than harm (false hope).
 
euroDilbert said:
Let those who believe in homeopathy use these products, they can't cause any physical harm as there's nothing to them. As for the psychological impact, on balance it probably does more good than harm (false hope).
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Of course. But equally, unsubstantiated claims that homeopathic preparations are a useful or efficacious way to deal with health issues must be strongly challenged and rebutted by those of a more objective and skeptical viewpoint. I strongly believe that perpetuating such myths in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary is detrimental to the common good.
 
I largely agree with you Clubman.

I have tried to rebut such claims myself. However, I've found that people seem to believe in these products due to some form of 'faith', rather than any rational thought or analysis. Appealing to logic, scientific method, test and trial etc. go 'in one ear and out the other' in my experience. Many people neither understand nor care about such things - they just want something that 'works'. Exactly the same outlook seems to operate in other areas e.g. the recently discussed pyramid gifting schemes.

In addition, many (though definitely not all) people promoting these products genuinely believe they work, and will help others.
I personally believe that a sympathetic hearing from a caring complementary therapist will have a positive therapeutic effect in itself, irrespective of whether the products actually have any useful function.
 
This thread is interesting (although not sure the OP is going to get much more out of it). I didn't actually realise what homeopathy is and, I suspect like many, just thought it was a complementary method of treating illness which included using natural herbs etc. But apparently that's herbalism, not homeopathy.

For reference here's a definition from www.dictionary.com:

ho·me·op·a·thy
n. pl. ho·me·op·a·thies
A system for treating disease based on the administration of minute doses of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease itself.

I didn't know that before even though I have been treated by a homeopath. I was a much more accepting person as a twenty year old than I am now so when the GP said you need to see a homeopath I just went, took what he gave me and that was that. Although I'm fluent in German generally it's quite possible I didn't understand everything that was said to me and at that stage I tended not really to question things like that very much. In fact the only question I remember asking was if it would help the pain, to which the homeopath replied "No, but it'll clear the infection and help to make sure it doesn't come back. If the pain is really very bad you can take ordinary painkillers, aspirin or paracetemol."
 
euroDilbert said:
I have tried to rebut such claims myself. However, I've found that people seem to believe in these products due to some form of 'faith', rather than any rational thought or analysis. Appealing to logic, scientific method, test and trial etc. go 'in one ear and out the other' in my experience. Many people neither understand nor care about such things - they just want something that 'works'. Exactly the same outlook seems to operate in other areas e.g. the recently discussed pyramid gifting schemes.
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Yeah. People should be free to believe in quack remedies and all sorts of other rubbish if they so choose. However once they make public unsubstantiated claims about such quack remedies they need to be challenged by those with a more accurate, objective and skeptical view on such matters.
I personally believe that a sympathetic hearing from a caring complementary therapist will have a positive therapeutic effect in itself
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I would have said "may" rather than "will" but I basically agree with your points.
 
Many years ago my sister who was extemely ill went to a now infamous homeopath in Killaloe, Co. Clare.
This was 23 years ago and my parents were charged 60 pounds p0er visit along with cast sums of money for 'homeopathic remedies'
They had tried every other route to find a cure for her illness, she suffered really bad migraines and vomiting and had damaged her intestines from the illness.
As part of her 'treatment' she was put on a severely restricted diet, she had to have special lymphatic drainage massages done twice a day and above all take her homeopathic remedies.

We saw a dramatic improvement in her condition and the number and severity of her migraine attacks decreased.

However in hindsight, given what we have since learnt about this practitioner he traded on my parents depseration for a 'cure'

The restrictive diet, removing the triggers for her migraines was the answer.

However he encouraged them to keep visiting him and continue paying out exhorbitant amounts of money for his skills....

These people were not and to the best of my knowledge still are not regulated.
They can set themselves up as homepaths and convince deperate people to part with huge sums of money to pay for their cures.

I have absolutely no faith in homepathy, to my mind it is just a means of fooling sick people and the parents of sick children into parting with their cash.

My parents were naive and desperate for a cure for my sister and this dispicable man knew that and conned them and was legally allowed to do so.

This man can no longer operate here in Ireland but many others like him can and do.

To the OP if you have serious doubts about the treatments being given to your child then why are you going through with it?

I totally disagree with the sure it will do him no harm approach to this type of thing.
It does do harm, it cheats people out of money, it puts children through treatments which do not work and it gives false hopes and wastes people's time when they could be doing something positive to help their illnesses.
 
Janet said:
For reference here's a definition from www.dictionary.com:

ho·me·op·a·thy
n. pl. ho·me·op·a·thies
A system for treating disease based on the administration of minute doses of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease itself.
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One other point to the OP - based on the definition above it would seem unlikely that a homeopath could help your son who does not seem to actually have any physical condition. Would be interested to hear how you/he get on though.
 
Janet said:
One other point to the OP - based on the definition above it would seem unlikely that a homeopath could help your son who does not seem to actually have any physical condition. Would be interested to hear how you/he get on though.
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More to the point homeopathic treatments will not help at all, in any circumstances, since they contain no active ingredients and are ineffectual in all cases.

Getting back to the original issue that gave rise to this thread, assuming that any underlying medical cause (e.g. depression etc.) has already been ruled out I would strongly recommend that you have a look into Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for anger/emotional issues. Even reading up on it yourself could help you learn how to cope with your son's problems and maybe even help him to cope with things. I'm sure that there are practitioners who specialise in CBT for children if necessary.

Who recommended a homeopathic approach to this by the way?
 
ClubMan said:
The original poster was quick to point out the precise nature of their query when I originally posted. The query was specifically in relation to homeopathic remedies. .. what the thread is about.
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The OP, me, has given up on this thread cos it has gone some distance away from it's intended course.

Thanks to those who kept on topic and provided an account of first-hand experience. The rest of you ... whatever ..
 
I totally agree with Clubman on the whole area of homeopathy. It is utter rubbish and has no scientific backup what so ever.
I would be careful not to lump all “Alternative therapies” together as treatments such as acupuncture and some herbal remedies might, and I stress might, have real curative value.
What I find utterly nonsensical is the attitude of some people that alternative treatments should be the first point of call over scientifically based mainstream medicine for any serious ailment.

On the point made by Bamhan about some alternative medicine preying on peoples fears, I agree but would point out that this also happens in main stream medicine as well.
 
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